Definition of "strength"

Our castle’s strength will laugh a siege to scorn.

c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene v]

He was thinking; but the glory of the song, the swell from the great organ, the clustered lights, […] , the height and vastness of this noble fane, its antiquity and its strength—all these things seemed to have their part as causes of the thrilling emotion that accompanied his thoughts.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company

Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.

1699, William Temple, Heads designed for an essay on conversations‎

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Psalms 46:1

[…] certainly there is not in the world a greater strength against temptations, then is deposited in an obedient understanding […] .

1649, Jeremy Taylor, The Great Examplar of Sanctity and Holy Life according to the Christian Institution‎, London: Francis Ash, Part 1, Section 4, Discourse 2, p. 66

Thou princely leader of our English strength,Never so needful on the earth of France,

1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene iii]

That done, dissever your united strengths,And part your mingled colours once again;

c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene i]

All like himself rebellious, by whose aidThis inaccessible high strength, the seatOf Deitie supream, us dispossest,He trusted to have seis’d […]

1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, lines 140-143

ſtrengthed with all myght / thꝛowe hys gloꝛious power / vnto all pacience / and longe ſufferynge with ioyfulnes

1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], Colossians j:, folio cclviiii, verso

Then ſhalt thow perceave what it meaneth that the power of this wretched monſtre / muſt be ſtrengthed / by anothers power and not by his awne.

1529, John Frith, A piſtle to the Chriſten reader […] ‎

In witnes wherof we haue cauſed this pꝛeſent wꝛiting to be ſtrengthed with the ſeal of our facultie […]

1550, Edward Halle, “King Henry the viij.”, in The Vnion of the Two Noble and Illuſtre Famelies of Lancaſtre and Yoꝛke‎, page 1271